Disclosing God in Action: The State of British Evangelicalism

1. Introduction

Our aim in this Special Issue was to assess British evangelicalism through the lens of its contemporary practices. We invited evangelical scholars to offer critical, reflexive, and yet also constructive accounts of what British evangelicals actually do, and how God’s action may be discerned in this. Meeting this aim has been possible due to the wonderful 18 authors who have given their time and effort to produce 14 insightful articles for this Special Issue, from a number of theological subdisciplines. The breadth of the practices addressed is captured in the table below:

summer camps	conversion and autism	Bible noise
divorce	Spirit in leadership discourse	entrepreneurship
rule of life in community	youth ministry origin stories	charismatic confession
celibate gay testimony	the doing of theology	African Pentecostal prayers
readings of Noah’s Ark	denialism

This surpassed our expectations. As guest editors, we offer a very big thank you to them all, as well as to the many peer reviewers and Religions journal staff who made this possible.

Our motivations for the journal arose out of our guest editor contexts and experiences. Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is a current staff member of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK leading an intercultural ministry called the One People Commission (OPC). His UK role is in close proximity to the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Lausanne Europe and Lausanne Global Movement. This positioning and location gives a vantage point of sitting at the crossroads of global evangelicalism and has afforded Israel the opportunity to attend some of the global conferences reflected on in this article as well as a motivation for engagement with this journal. In addition, Israel was also interested in editing this Special Issue journal because as a practical theologian with a focus on intercultural theology (Olofinjana et al. 2025), intercultural missiology and public theology, he is interested in interrogating how evangelical Christians engage contemporary issues.

Helen maintains a particular interest in how evangelical convictions and concerns are engaged in practical theology. Her 2020 SCM publication Reordering Theological Reflection: Starting with Scripture examines the ways in which practical theology in the western academy has been heavily influenced by liberal and liberationist theological convictions (Collins 2020). These are often seen as at odds with an evangelical focus on the authority of the Bible to determine matters of faith and praxis, and so practical theology can feel like an unfamiliar or even hostile space for Christians with evangelical convictions. Moreover, Helen’s role in an Anglican theological college training ordinands for Christian ministry means that her research seeks to engage confessionally with academic theology for the strengthening of the church. Therefore, she was especially attracted to editing this Special Issue, with its focus on evangelical practices for disclosing God’s action, because it brings together her concerns for developing evangelical practical theology and enabling confessional, academic theology orientated to Christian discipleship.

Andrew came to this project through an out-of-the-blue invite from the Religions journal for a Special Issue that suggested a focus on evangelicalism and practices. This caught his attention given his past research on evangelical practices (e.g., Rogers 2016), and more recent autobiographical reflections on his own journey in practical theology, as an evangelical, researcher and teacher in a university setting (Rogers 2022). Out of this research and experience, a focus on British evangelicalism seemed necessary, given its particular dynamics and distinctives in comparison to evangelical trends elsewhere. He has also observed a common tendency of practice-engaged academic theology to produce pieces of the form ‘The trouble with this practice is…’; perhaps especially so of evangelical practices, undoubtedly sometimes with good reason. Thus, the push in this Special Issue is to encourage contributors to be constructive as well, where appropriate. This constructive nudge is bound up with the overarching title of the Special Issue which poses the question ‘How is God’s action disclosed in any practice?’

Andrew is located in a secular university with its associated norms, yet it also has three Christian foundation colleges and an ecumenical ministerial formation programme that he co-leads. The tension between these institutionally reflects wider disciplinary tensions around the question of how to speak of God in academic theological research. Asking and trying to answer this question has been noted as a ‘spiritual turn’ in practice-engaged theology (Watkins 2022) and reflects the work of a number of theologians working in this area. The upshot of all this is that we invited our contributors to ask the God question and try to answer it! More of this later.

2. British Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism

Our contexts and concerns described above have informed our sense that British evangelicalism is at a critical crossroads at the moment. There are several reasons for this, but some of the major reasons are firstly, the contentious nature of evangelical identity and practices in a contested post-secular world. Secondly, there is the issue around western evangelical identity and its relationship with evangelicals of colour. Thirdly, there is confusion and conflation in some popular language and public discourse between British evangelicals and North American evangelicals. The renewed presidency of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement and the proximity of some American evangelicals have further exacerbated this conflation. These factors and many more have led to British evangelicals rethinking what it means to be an evangelical and how God might be disclosed through key evangelical practices. This in turn is leading to some evangelicals starting to disrupt the boundaries and reshape the contours of British evangelicalism, as will be seen in the fourteen contributions in this Special Issue. But this quest for an honest re-assessment of British evangelicals must not be treated in isolation from global conversations on evangelical identity and practices.

In 2024 alone, Israel attended two important evangelical conferences. These two conferences were significant because of the nature of their conversations on global evangelical identity, mission and practices. The first was a European conversation on evangelical identity looking at the unity and diversity of European evangelicals. In August, in the beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic, about 80 European evangelicals met together, drawn from different theological traditions, ecclesiastical traditions and different regions in Europe. The conference was organised by the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians (FEET) working in collaboration with the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA). The theme of the conference was Evangelical Identity in Europe Today: Unity in Diversity. An observation of the central theme that kept emerging through the plenary presentations and workshops was around evangelical identity and how that informs certain evangelical practices such as evangelical spirituality, evangelicals and populist political movements in Europe and evangelical mission. In this light, Bebbington’s quadrilateral (Bebbington 1989), Larsen’s pentagon (Larsen and Treier 2007) and McGrath’s ‘hexagon’ (McGrath 1995) were all used to describe and not prescribe what evangelical identity is in the different European contexts. There is no one European evangelical identity, but there were shared learnings from history, sociology, theology and scripture. Another emerging theme from the discussions was the acknowledgement of the so-called ‘migrant churches’ now in Europe which seems to feature in almost every presentation, except there were not many participants who were people of colour in the room. The speakers and participants were mainly white Europeans. This gap is also reflected in this Special Issue comprising fourteen articles with only two articles from scholars of colour. More reflection on this is below, but returning to the theme of global evangelical identity and practices, the conference in Prague, despite its imperfections, points towards an evangelical search for renewed identity and practices in post-secular Europe.

A month after the FEET conference was the fourth Lausanne Congress in South Korea with the theme of Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together. Lausanne, being an evangelical movement that started in 1974, organises global congresses exploring evangelical identity and mission. The congress had in attendance 5394 people from 200 nations of the world demonstrating global evangelicalism as a significant expression of Christianity. But the release of a theological statement referred to as the Seoul Statement just before the start of the congress raised critical questions. Firstly, there were questions about audience participation in the production of the statement. Many participants did not appreciate a theological statement being released on their behalf without their input. Secondly, there were questions around both the theological issues addressed in the statement and the ones the statement omitted. For example, the statement addressed key areas of evangelical practice such as the centrality of the gospel story, the role of the Bible in discipleship formation, engagement with technology, engagement with anthropology and with more to say on sexuality than any other issue. But the statement did not address in-depth issues such as colonisation, racism and more.1 Lastly, there were questions about the process of how the statement was put together. These critical voices within global evangelicalism reveal something of a disruption to its tradition and boundaries—which some of the articles in this Special Issue certainly did as well.

3. British Evangelical Scholarship and Black Dissenting Evangelicals

Returning to the lack of diversity of contributors, it is important to say that efforts and requests were made to engage scholars who are evangelicals of colour in this volume—35 contributors in total were invited which included 8 evangelicals of colour. A major setback is that whilst there are many white British evangelical scholars in full-time academic positions, this is not the case with evangelical scholars of colour. The truth is that there are not many evangelical scholars of colour within the UK context. Added to this, is the fact that the few who do exist often do not have the luxury of full-time academic positions. Many of these scholars are still very much in church ministry alongside part-time academic work. This is reflected in the struggle to find evangelical theologians of colour to contribute to this volume.

A further hypothesis identified, and one of the gaps in relation to what is discussed above concerning this Special Issue which needs picking up in future agenda and research work, is the lack of meaningful engagement between white British evangelical scholarship and black theological scholarship. Using black theological scholarship here as an example, there is a robust thriving black theological scholarship in Britain that is distanced from white evangelical scholarship. There are several reasons for this, but a major one related to this discussion is the lack of engagement of white evangelical theologians in developing decolonised theologies that can address historic injustices and ongoing racial injustices (Olofinjana 2025). This is partly why some black theological scholarship is committed to a black British liberative theological framework, but there is another strand of that scholarship which can be described as black dissenting evangelicals. Black dissenting evangelicals is a term coined here by co-guest editor Israel Oluwole Olofinjana to identify and describe the phenomenon of critical black evangelicals becoming reluctant to engage with white British evangelicals, as they feel their perspective and concerns have not been listened to or valued. This is an ongoing scenario that is being observed. Black dissenting evangelicals are therefore black theological scholars and leaders who will locate and identify their theological framework within evangelical and Pentecostal circles. Black dissenting evangelicals have emerged due to the lack of engagement of white British evangelical scholarship with issues of slavery, colonisation and racial injustice and this scenario has led to them finding friendship and home with black British liberation theologians. Black dissenting evangelicals are not at ease with British evangelicalism and therefore question its relevance in understanding the perspectives of black Christians and pursuing racial justice, as well as the more recent discussions on reparative justice. Racial justice and reparative justice are two examples of key practices among Black dissenting evangelicals.

4. Themes Within the Articles

This summary of trends within global evangelicalism is the broader context within which the Special Issue might be read and received. Israel’s experiences note the tensions around what constitutes evangelical identity in the West (let alone in the rest of the world) and our hope is that the Special Issue shows what is distinctive about British evangelicalism within the global picture. However, as will be shown below, the articles demonstrate that there is a plethora of understandings even within the British context, which further evidences that attempts to establish global definitions and identities, such as the Lausanne Seoul Statement described above, are insurmountably complex.

For this Special Issue, we sought authors who are not only writing about evangelicalism but also somehow own that label for themselves in their own Christian identity. Therefore, this Special Issue is distinctive in having British evangelicals critically engaging with their own beliefs and practices (following Morris and Cameron 2022; compare Larsen and Treier 2007; McDermott 2010). It is clear from the Special Issue contributions that evangelicals are well able to identify the challenges within their tradition while still subscribing to the tradition. A number of contributors were clear about the potential of the British evangelical church to cause harm to others (compare critiques of evangelicalism by non-evangelicals Strhan 2015; Gaddini 2022; Sharp 2023). For example, Paynter’s article examines the response of denial in the face of allegations, Williams/Cundill’s article looks at the unhelpful focus on words in conceptualising conversion, Aylen analyses the ways in which gay testimonies may be misused and weaponised, Hornby explores damaging pastoral care practices among ministry to the divorced, Bennet considers the way in which evangelical leadership discourse is not sufficiently trinitarian, and Rogers explores the deforming impact of limited opportunities for corporate confession of sin. Each of these authors are unafraid to expose the deficits they see within evangelical practice, but they also each contain hope that new, more faithful practices can be found within evangelicalism, which can enable its renewal. This is particularly seen in their willingness to continue to identify as ‘evangelical’ even amid the difficulties they identify.

Building on this theme, the Special Issue also bears witness to the way in which evangelicals are searching for more nuanced and interdisciplinary definitions of evangelicalism which diversify the traditional definitions. Bebbington’s 1989 book Evangelicalism in Modern Britain identified four key characteristics of evangelicalism: conversionism, biblicism, activism and crucicentrism, which has come to entirely dominate discussions on evangelical identity. However, the authors in the Special Issue want to broaden and nuance this quadrilateral and offer new, descriptive accounts, much like was seen at the European conference on evangelical identity referenced above. For example, Scanlan, Schoon-Tanis and Lukabyo highlight youth relationships as a key defining marker of evangelical practice. Hutchinson explores the influence of contemporary culture upon evangelicals’ interpretation of Scripture. Hornby advocates for the importance of kindness and compassion as an enactment of evangelical commitments. Aylen shows how encountering God through experience, and drawing on testimony, is an important evangelical method for interpreting and proclaiming the faith. Clark examines entrepreneurship as a site of divine disclosure. Dunlop, Williams/Cundill, Rogers and Nyanni/Andoh-Kesson explore close connections between evangelical and Pentecostal/charismatic commitments. Collins suggests that finding God in and through nature, and among the marginalised, are also central to evangelical commitments. Chandy offers creative ways in which the Scriptures can be engaged which moves evangelicals beyond narrowly cognitive understandings. Briggs highlights the ways in which new monasticism and a rule of life can also be faithful expressions of evangelicalism. This broadening and diversifying of evangelical markers is an important contribution of this Special Issue and we hope it inspires further work in complexifying definitions and evangelical characteristics.

A further recurring theme among the articles is identifying how God is disclosed as the agent of this broadening, nuancing and disrupting of evangelical identities. Authors propose seeing God at work in a range of ways which might not be commonly associated with evangelicalism. For example, while evangelicals might often be characterised by an assurance in their convictions, Collins, Paynter, Dunlop, Chandy and Aylen each examine ways in which God is at work disrupting some of those convictions, decentring rigid thinking and challenging fixed certainties. While evangelicals are commonly associated with firm boundaries between the church and the world (Gaddini 2022), Briggs, Williams/Cundill, Aylen, Collins, Hutchinson, Clark and Paynter each examine how the Spirit is often at work blurring boundaries, embracing outside perspectives and making use of ‘secular’ means to further the work of the kingdom. While evangelical associations with evangelism are deep rooted (Bebbington 1989), the Special Issue contributions show evidence of a much more integrated understanding of mission. Hornby, Williams/Cundill, Scanlan/Schoon-Tanis/Lukabyo, Briggs, Collins and Aylen all strongly advocate how God might be leading evangelicals to build solidarity with the marginalised and allow their mission to be shaped by compassion and difference. These conviction-disrupting, boundary-blurring, mission-inclusive trends may evidence an important way in which British evangelicalism differs from American evangelicalism. However, further comparative work would be needed to establish this distinction.

An emerging theme within the Special Issue is discussion of migrant evangelical churches in Britain: Clark examines the entrepreneurialism of evangelical immigrants, and Nyanni/Andoh-Kesson highlight the prayer practices of African diaspora Pentecostal communities. However, as for the European conference on evangelical identity, there is much more work to be done to bring migrant experiences into the discussions on British evangelicalism. We note above the difficulties we had in securing more authors of colour to contribute to the Special Issue. We hope that the disruptive and nuancing work of the Special Issue might open up future opportunities for dialogue with black dissenting evangelicals and inspire further work on anti-racism and decolonisation.

5. Speaking of God?

Contributors were invited to speak about God, specifically what God was doing in the practices considered. This was a relatively unusual commission, even for theology, since it required contributors not just to report accounts of divine action, but to reflect as authors on what God is doing. The assumption here is that God really does things in the world, and it is possible to discern what this may be, theologians included. While it may surprise some that speaking of God in this way is an issue, this is a tension that all theologians, perhaps particularly evangelicals, need to navigate between faith, practice and academia.

We nearly did not speak of God in this way. Our first submission was by co-guest editor Helen Collins, who asked questions about what God was doing in evangelical camping. The reviewer responded that these statements ‘cannot be present in a scientific text about religious phenomena’. This prompted a series of helpful exchanges with Religions journal personnel, since as guest editors we were concerned that such a response might invalidate all contributions to the Special Issue. We explained that theology is not a science in the narrow sense of the epistemology implied by the reviewer; furthermore, authorial theological reflection on divine action is increasingly part of the academic theological task (see this Special Issue Call for Papers)—it is not just phenomenology and not just being reflexive about authorial religious commitments. To put it another way, Helen was asking proper academic theological questions. Given that this Special Issue now exists, you will have worked out that this story has a happy ending. We were invited to put our case in a letter, which enabled Religions staff to better understand and embrace the approach we were taking.

Two things caught our attention as to how contributors spoke of God in action—the language used, and the vehicles identified. On language, authors often couched their reflections in tentative language using questions beginning with ‘I wonder’, ‘Could’, or ‘Might’ (with just a few employing a more confident tone). This was accompanied by a recognition that claims about God’s action are subjective and should be open to testing, while at the same time taking seriously the reality of these claims.

Many vehicles for God’s action are identified in these articles, both directly through an aspect of the practice considered, as well as through more methodological means. Unsurprisingly, the Bible is one of those vehicles. In speaking of an evangelical rule of life, Briggs emphasises that God’s action is frequently in collaboration with human action. Faithful discipleship comprises daily human acts that are in response to the word of God by the power of the Spirit. Both Collins and Clark explicitly name Scripture as a vehicle for discerning God’s action; in the case of Collins, it is the hermeneutical ‘rhyme’ between God’s action in the text and today, particularly around the festival of Sukkot for evangelical camping; for Clark, the resonance of ‘get up and walk’ (Jn 5: 1–17) and ‘blessing in exile’ (Jer 29: 1–13) helped discern God’s action in evangelical immigrant entrepreneurship. Chandy identifies how Bible Noise is a vehicle for God’s action, through ordinary, embodied human voices speaking Scripture. On Noah’s Ark, Hutchinson wonders whether God may be at work in popular cultural interpretations of this text, through its power to capture the imagination.

Beyond the Bible, Rogers suggests that God’s action is disclosed in the willingness of charismatic leaders to be self-critical of their tradition regarding confession, also noting the significance of relationality as a standout vehicle. Similarly, Scanlan, Schoon-Tanis, and Lukabyo identify ‘relationship’ as the primary means of God’s action in evangelical youth work, seeing an implicit sacramentality in this. Aylen contends that autoethnography itself can be revelatory, and through this methodology makes five claims to divine action in his testimony. Also employing autoethnography, Dunlop’s article argues for a stance of expectancy for evangelical scholars, where they look for God at work in the world through ‘rigorous paying attention’.

6. Concluding Thoughts

This editorial has focused on the different contexts of the co-editors, some of the wider issues and current trends within global discussions on evangelicalism, key emerging themes from the Special Issue articles, and the question of engaging with God’s agency in academic writing. Our hope is that the articles in this Special Issue might shed light on what is distinctive about British evangelicalism and might give other researchers the confidence to pursue their own questions about divine disclosure within their empirical work. We think the focus on engaging with evangelicals through what they actually do, rather than just through what they believe, is a significant contribution which can nuance and complexify understandings of twenty-first century evangelicalism. We also hope to see other evangelical scholars inspired to write constructively, as well as critically, about their own tradition, such that evangelicalism can continue to be a significant contributor to global theological conversations.

The insights from the articles, summarised above, suggest a number of areas for further, fruitful research on the themes of evangelicalism, including (1) the relationship between black and white evangelicals, and the causes of disconnect; (2) the significance of black dissenting evangelicals to the landscape of evangelicalism in Britain; (3) comparisons between the trends identified within British evangelicalism and other global expressions of evangelicalism, particularly in the USA, to further gain a sense of Britain’s distinctive contributions; (4) further engagement with evangelical practices not discussed in the Special Issue, for example, preaching, tithing, uses of technology, or political activism, to better understand evangelicals through the range of things they do; and (5) further research into concepts and understandings of divine action within practical theology, to enable more constructive theological contributions to be made through empirical work. We look forward to engaging with the outcomes of these labours in due course and express our thanks to Religions for making our contributions possible.